Some load driving circuits that drive gate-driven power devices, such as gate drive circuits for driving insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), drive a plurality of power devices connected in parallel in order to allow a large current to flow. Some of such gate drive circuits adopt a configuration for driving the plurality of power devices at different timings rather than at the same time to avoid a large turn-on surge current.
In such a configuration, damage caused by overcurrent can be prevented by determining, as an abnormality, an overcurrent flowing through a power device that is turned on first and stopping the power application to the other power devices.
However, conventional devices are not designed to reduce current losses, since the turn-on current required by the power devices to be turned on later is sometimes increased.